Can We Talk?
With such a snappy title who could have failed to be interested or aware of the Information and Consultation Directive of the European Parliament and Council (Directive 2002/14/EC) (the Directive), or of the UK Government’s racy discussion paper on the same entitled “High Performance Workplaces- the role of employee involvement in a modern economy” www.dti.gov.uk/er/consultation/informconsult.htm
A little glib maybe, but employers who are unaware of the above Directive may soon find themselves having a very rude awakening.
Last July the Government published a consultation document (“High Performing Workplaces: Informing and consulting employees”) on the implementation of the Directive, which included an initial draft of the proposed regulations www.dti.gov.uk/er/consultation/perf_work.htm
The Directive set to be introduced into domestic legislation from April 2005, has been declared by the General Secretary of the TUC as:
“potentially the most significant piece of employment legislation ever to be introduced in the UK”.
So what exactly is it?
The object of the Directive is to establish a framework under which Member States will draw up their own regulations and procedures whereby employers will have to fulfil a “minimum requirement for the right to information and consultation of employees”. Under these regulations both will “work in a spirit of cooperation and with due regard to their reciprocal rights and obligations”. Fine words, but in essence the aim of the Directive is to establish a vehicle whereby open and ongoing dialogue is facilitated and maintained for the benefit of employees and industry alike. Following on from the European Works Council model, the idea is that by increasing employee involvement at an early stage there are major commercial benefits to be had, in addition to employees having more input on business decisions which may affect their future.
Who will it apply to?
The UK government has decided that the Regulations will apply to all “undertakings” (ie public or private organisations, which carry out any form of economic activity, whether or not operating for gain) with 150 or more employees from April 2005. Thereafter the Regulations will be extended to cover undertakings with 100 or more employees from March 2007 and those with 50 or more employees from March 2008 onwards.
What will the mechanics be?
Undertakings will be free to agree with their employees the structure that is to be adopted. The “trigger mechanism” will be a petition from 10% of the work force requesting that information and consultation arrangements be put in place. If agreement cannot be reached over the information and consultation arrangements within 6 months of the petition then a default model will be imposed and this would have to be implemented within a further 6-month period.
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